Packaged goods, such as boxes of cereal, often have a premium or prize inserted in them. These premiums or prizes typically are provided in a bandolier of serial packages, each package containing one such prize and being separated from adjacent packages by a seam or seal. Apparatus has been developed to automatically separate one packaged premium from a bandolier of such premiums and to insert the premium into the larger package of goods.
Interest in such inserted premiums has increased because they can be a very effective, targeted form of marketing. A sample inserted into a larger package or box of goods bought by a consumer has no extra distribution cost, has typically negligible additional weight and is highly targeted at a group of consumers which the marketer is trying to reach: consumers who have actually made a decision to buy a related product.
Conventional apparatus for doing this have placed limitations on the kinds of premiums which can be inserted. They generally have to be tough enough to withstand the insertion apparatus. Where a premium takes the form of a paper coupon or other flat medium, a bandolier of such coupons can pass through sets of rollers and the coupons are separated by lines of perforations. To separate a coupon from the bandolier, one set of rollers stops while another adjacent set keeps going, having the effect of putting tension on a perforation line and bursting the coupon along the perforation line from the rest of the bandolier. U.S. Pat. No. 6,722,108 issued to Kotsiopoulos describes this kind of typical insertion apparatus. Burst-roller coupon inserters of this type would, however, simply smash a fragile packaged premium.
In some cases, it is desirable to include fragile premium items such as plastic toys, baked items such as a pretzels or cookies, or candy which may be damaged by the conventional apparatus. Friction rollers, however, would simply smash these fragile packaged premiums to such an extent that the premium will be rendered unacceptable. As a result, if these items are to be included, they would have to be inserted manually, which can be quite expensive and time consuming. Thus, a need persists in developing premium separators and inserters which will place a minimum amount of stress on the packaged premium and deliver it to the point of insertion in an undamaged condition.